Unnatural Leadership

Key Idea

The unnatural leader embraces what has generally been considered the weaknesses of
leaders, and then turns those weaknesses into strengths. This style of leader breaks
all the conventional rules of leadership, especially the perspective that the leader
needs to be “in charge” (think Steve Jobs).

Book to read

Unnatural Leadership by David Dotlich (2002)

Quick Take from the Book

The unnatural leader engages in 10 practices:

Refuse to be a prisoner of experience

Expose your vulnerabilities

Acknowledge your Shadow side

Coach and teach rather than inspire and lead

Practice trusting others before they earn it

Connect instead of create

Give up some control

Quote of note

“Leaders get in an experience rut. They do the same things the same way because it
worked in the past, they don’t have the time to change, or it has contributed to their
current success. Rather than analyzing whether a new idea or approach might work better,
they reflexively rely on standard operating procedure. The wide-eyed, blue-sky thinking
that many young entrepreneurs have practiced was possible because they were not prisoners
of their experiences. Their unwillingness to rely on the usual case histories helped
them create new industries and companies.” — Unnatural Leadership